PlusForeign Affairs & National Security

The Solution to the Migrant Crisis Lies South of the Border

by Steve Slattery

Better leadership and more economic freedom can help make these countries places their natives don’t want to leave.

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Migrants from Nicaragua and Ecuador and other nationalities waiting in line to be processed by U.S. Border Patrol in El Paso, Texas, January 4, 2023.

Paul Ratje/Reuters

The Biden administration recently announced that it would bolster asylum restrictions at the U.S.–Mexico border to crack down on unauthorized crossings. This is just a month after President Biden traveled to the border for the first time in his presidency — underscoring just how acute the migrant crisis has become.

In fiscal year 2022, U.S. immigration authorities recorded 2.38 million migrant encounters at the southwest border. According to an analysis of government data by the Migrant Policy Institute, for the first time in history, U.S. Customs and Border Protection encountered more Venezuelans, Cubans, and Nicaraguans during FY 2022 than migrants from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.

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About the Author

Steve Slattery

Steve Slattery is executive vice president of The Fund for American Studies (TFAS), a nonprofit organization that teaches the principles of limited government, free-market economics, and honorable leadership to students and young professionals in the U.S. and around the world. Since 2008, TFAS has reached more than 600 students and young leaders in Latin America through its programs in Chile and Guatemala.

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